The England national cricket team has made extensive changes to its Test squad for the series against the Sri Lanka national cricket team. The first match of the series between the teams will take place at Old Trafford in Manchester.

England has dropped two players, Jordan Cox and Olly Stone, from the squad for the first Test. This happened after the duo did not get a chance to play in the ongoing match against the Sri Lanka national cricket team. Instead of putting them on the bench, the management decided to leave them out of the squad.

The ECB has cleared the duo to play in the Vitality County Championship Division One, which begins on August 23 (Friday). While Cox will play for Essex in the match against Hampshire, Stone will line up for Nottinghamshire.

The ECB’s official statement reads: “The England men’s Test team has released Jordan Cox and Olly Stone for the next round of the Vitality County Championship Division One, which begins tomorrow. They will depart Emirates Old Trafford later this morning.”

“Cox will play for Essex against Hampshire in the Utilita Bowl, Southampton and Stone will travel to Seat Unique, Riverside, for Nottighamshire’s visit to Durham.”

Jordan Cox and Olly Stone were included in the England squad as the team suffered an injury scare. Cox was called up as a replacement for Zak Crawley, who suffered a finger injury during the Test series against the West Indies and was ruled out for the entire series against the Sri Lanka national cricket team.

On the other hand, Olly Stone was included in the team following the injury to non-playing pacer Dillon Pennington, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Captain Ben Stokes was also ruled out as he pulled his hamstring while playing in The Hundred.

Although Cox and Stone were substitutes, neither of them played. Instead, the team let Dan Lawrence, who has been on the bench for some time, open the innings and Matthew Potts replaced skipper Ben Stokes to bolster the seam attack.

England takes command in first Test against Sri Lanka

In the first Test match against Sri Lanka cricket team, England cricket team took control of the game on the first day. They were asked to field first and they performed magically with the ball, taking wickets in quick succession.

England defeated Sri Lanka by just 236 runs with Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir taking three wickets each. Apart from them, Gus Atkinson took two wickets while Mark Wood took one.

They then had a good start with the bat, with Ben Duckett (13) and Dan Lawrence (9) batting well in the last session. They would like to take advantage of the first inning lead, completely outplay the opponent and take a 1-0 lead in the three-game series.